of three people in six seemingly unrelated shootings Monday night in Richmond has prompted the police department to beef up street patrols, double the number of cops in schools and work with the city to put cameras in crime hot spots,

police said.

Two men and a 17-year-old girl died from their wounds, raising the citys homicide total for this year to 15.

Last nights shootings are a tragic reminder of the difficult work that lies ahead for our community, said Chief Chris Magnus, who took over the department earlier this year.

Police do not have motives or suspects in any of Mondays killings, police spokesman Lt. Mark Gagan said.

Killed was Laquisha Turner, 17, the girlfriend of a 21-year-old man well known to Richmond police.

The man was driving on Hilltop Mall Road near Robert H. Miller Drive about 7:20 p.m. when someone sprayed the car with bullets. The driver was not injured, but the girl was hit multiple times. He drove her to Doctors Hospital in San Pablo, where she died several hours later, police said.

As officers were investigating the shooting, someone walked up to Deshon Cortez Dokes, 26, and shot him multiple times while he was standing in the 500 block of Bissell Avenue. Bystanders took Dokes, who was carrying drugs and a large amount of cash, to Kaiser hospital, where he died from his

injuries, police said.

Just after 9 p.m., patrol officers were dispatched to 6th Street and Lucas Avenue, where they found a 15-year-old boy who had been hit by gunfire while riding his bike. Police are still investigating whether the boy was the intended target or got caught in the crossfire. He was taken to the trauma center at John Muir Medical in Walnut Creek, where he was listed in critical but stable condition Tuesday.

About 9:30 p.m., Shontelle Boughton, 26, was sitting in a parked PT Cruiser in the 5400 block of Gately Avenue when a white Oldsmobile Aurora drove slowly past the car, made a U-turn and then began shooting at the victim when passing by a second time, police said.

Boughton, shot in the chest, was taken to a local hospital where he died a short time later, police said.

At 11:45 p.m., a search of the area near the basketball courts in Lucas Park on Harbour Way turned up a 16-year-old boy who had been shot in the foot.

Police said the boy was uncooperative.

could not give officers a description of the shooter and refused to discuss a possible motive.

Police will soon add three new officers to the West County Narcotics Enforcement Team and will work with the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency, Contra Costa County Sheriffs Department, probation and parole departments to curb the violence.

In the past when weve been confronted with violence like this, weve gotten help from outside agencies. But after that help ends the violence increases again, Gagan said. We now want to look at the root causes of violence, and that might take months and years to see results.

To curb the violence, police will also:

– Put more police officers — headed by street-smart, experienced captains — in the crime hot spots, which include the northern, central and southern parts of the city.

– Double the number of school resource officers in schools to ramp up a truancy abatement program in the fall.

– Work with city officials to install cameras in public places as early as this summer.

Anyone with information on any of Mondays shootings should call Richmond police at (510) 233-1214 or the anonymous tip line at 232-8477.